‘The Polish Bear’ Pursues His Prey
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Daniel Omielanczuk is one of the few Polish MMA stars well-known outside his home country, his celebrity owing to an impressive amount of experience. He has competed in mixed martial arts for more than a decade, four of them in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Apart from that, he serves as a living illustration of the great bogatyrs, standing 6-foot and weighing 252 pounds. Most people in his home country do not recall that he actually got his UFC start out of Ukraine, not Poland, and they certainly do not realize that he still has to rent an apartment and once worked as a club bouncer. His UFC run after a disappointing three-fight losing streak, as he came up short against Stephan Struve, Timothy Johnson and Curtis Blaydes. In 2017, Omielanczuk struck a contract with the Russian organization Absolute Championship Berkut, which has since evolved into Absolute Championship Akhmat.
Omielanczuk started his combat sports journey in karate and
transitioned to kickboxing and muay Thai before moving to MMA. He
drew attention almost immediately, and
KSW offered him a contract. However, he lost back-to-back
bouts, both by decision. Omielanczuk spent the next three years
treating MMA as a hobby and competing mostly in Poland. Everything
changed when he met Vitaly Vovko at a tournament. The Ukrainian
promoter frequently invited him to participate at his events, most
of them bearing the name of
Pride Fighting Championships veteran Igor
Vovchanchyn. Omielanczuk still recalls his first encounter with
the mixed martial arts legend.
“I met him after one of my performances at the Igor Vovchanchyn Cup in Kharkov,” he said. “Then I interviewed him for my Master’s thesis, since at the time I was studying at the Higher School for Tourism, specializing in hotel business and researching the topic of ‘employment of MMA fighters after retirement.’ The story told by Igor Vovchanchyn was a great addition to my work, because he is well-known across the world. He is a legend. To be honest, I feel really nice every time I recall my trips to Ukraine: They all went smooth and easy, and we also had good laughs. At the time in Poland, no one invited me to tournaments.”
A move to the United States did nothing to diminish Omielanczuk’s efforts, as he won four of his first six bouts in the UFC -- a three-year run that included a majority decision over Alexey Oleynik.
“I was stronger than him,” Omielanczuk said, “and I wasn’t afraid of his ground game. He was unable to control the fight, and I constantly checked him with hard shots. He didn’t have a chance.”
Success inside the Octagon proved fleeting, and in 2018, Omielanczuk returned to ACB and later joined the ACA roster.
“I am 37 years old, which is not too much for a heavyweight, so I hope I still can earn my bread inside the cage,” he said with a laugh. “I have never even dreamt of ever getting into the UFC, but at the end of the day, I had nine fights there. That’s life. It was a good time and I have got nothing against them, but training for UFC fights is a very expensive and long process. Apart from that, I had to live in the States for a long time, but I love my country very much and I don’t like leaving it for a long time. In this regard, the ACA holds many of its events in Poland, so that’s great for me [and] what I need.”
Omielanczuk has gone 3-1 since he returned home and needed only 1:33 to knock out Evgeny Erokhin in his most recent appearance at ACA 96 on June 8. The crowd at the Lodz Sports Arena in Lodz, Poland, was far beyond impressed with his work. His one defeat in that stretch resulted from a three-round clash with disgraced Olympic gold medalist Amir Aliakbari. Omielanczuk did not necessarily enjoy the experience of preparing for the Iranian wrestler, whose fans bombarded him on a daily basis.
“Every day, they texted and commented nasty things to every possible platform they could find,” he said. “I received hundreds of messages saying something like: ‘Die, you dog’ [and] “If Amir doesn’t finish you, we will do that for him.’ There was one guy, probably the sickest one of the bunch, [and] he counted down the days to my death. Every day, he greeted me by texting “You got 28 days left …,” “You got 27 days left.’ There was one day when he didn’t text me, so I said to him, ‘Hey, man. Seems that you forgot I got 26 days left.’ I legit don’t care about these things.
“I was just really shocked to see the culture of Iranian fans, who apparently thought that they supported their favorite fighter in the best way possible doing things like that,” Omielanczuk added. “They only succeeded in dishonoring him. It is sad that I couldn’t defeat him. There were some controversial moments in that fight. Like in many other fights that I have had, there was just one little thing that prevented me from winning, probably the luck turned its back on me.”
Outside of training for his fights, Omielanczuk enjoys playing soccer. In fact, a group of Polish mixed martial artists formed a soccer team and defeated a group of Polish boxers, proving that “MMA is better than boxing, even in soccer.” Omielanczuk, an admitted tattoo enthusiast, also took part in a few charity soccer matches, with money raised being donated to cancer patients.
While some fans have taken to calling him “The Polish Bear,” Omielanczuk does not care for nicknames all that much.
“All I want now is to pull up spectacular fights, making more and more money,” he said. “I hope that I will be fighting for the title in my next fight. I got all it takes. It has to be said that I don’t fight to become super popular. It burdens me. I am not a movie star, not a legend, not the ‘American Ninja.’ I am just a heavyweight fighter and I want everyone to treat me as one, nothing else. I pursue [the] ACA championship only to prove to myself that I am a good MMA fighter after all.”
Daniel Omielanczuk is one of the few Polish MMA stars well-known outside his home country, his celebrity owing to an impressive amount of experience. He has competed in mixed martial arts for more than a decade, four of them in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Apart from that, he serves as a living illustration of the great bogatyrs, standing 6-foot and weighing 252 pounds. Most people in his home country do not recall that he actually got his UFC start out of Ukraine, not Poland, and they certainly do not realize that he still has to rent an apartment and once worked as a club bouncer. His UFC run after a disappointing three-fight losing streak, as he came up short against Stephan Struve, Timothy Johnson and Curtis Blaydes. In 2017, Omielanczuk struck a contract with the Russian organization Absolute Championship Berkut, which has since evolved into Absolute Championship Akhmat.
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“I met him after one of my performances at the Igor Vovchanchyn Cup in Kharkov,” he said. “Then I interviewed him for my Master’s thesis, since at the time I was studying at the Higher School for Tourism, specializing in hotel business and researching the topic of ‘employment of MMA fighters after retirement.’ The story told by Igor Vovchanchyn was a great addition to my work, because he is well-known across the world. He is a legend. To be honest, I feel really nice every time I recall my trips to Ukraine: They all went smooth and easy, and we also had good laughs. At the time in Poland, no one invited me to tournaments.”
Omielanczuk was 13 fights into his career when the European Combat
Sambo Federation took notice in 2012. He was victorious in each of
his first two appearances with the organization, then met David
Tkeshelashvili at a show in Azerbaijan, where the conditions
inside the venue were so unbearable that a number of fighters were
overcome by the heat. Omielanczuk and Tkeshelashvili went the
distance in a spectacular battle, with the former walking away a
unanimous decision victor. The performance drew the attention of
the UFC, which signed him less than a year later.
A move to the United States did nothing to diminish Omielanczuk’s efforts, as he won four of his first six bouts in the UFC -- a three-year run that included a majority decision over Alexey Oleynik.
“I was stronger than him,” Omielanczuk said, “and I wasn’t afraid of his ground game. He was unable to control the fight, and I constantly checked him with hard shots. He didn’t have a chance.”
Success inside the Octagon proved fleeting, and in 2018, Omielanczuk returned to ACB and later joined the ACA roster.
“I am 37 years old, which is not too much for a heavyweight, so I hope I still can earn my bread inside the cage,” he said with a laugh. “I have never even dreamt of ever getting into the UFC, but at the end of the day, I had nine fights there. That’s life. It was a good time and I have got nothing against them, but training for UFC fights is a very expensive and long process. Apart from that, I had to live in the States for a long time, but I love my country very much and I don’t like leaving it for a long time. In this regard, the ACA holds many of its events in Poland, so that’s great for me [and] what I need.”
Omielanczuk has gone 3-1 since he returned home and needed only 1:33 to knock out Evgeny Erokhin in his most recent appearance at ACA 96 on June 8. The crowd at the Lodz Sports Arena in Lodz, Poland, was far beyond impressed with his work. His one defeat in that stretch resulted from a three-round clash with disgraced Olympic gold medalist Amir Aliakbari. Omielanczuk did not necessarily enjoy the experience of preparing for the Iranian wrestler, whose fans bombarded him on a daily basis.
“Every day, they texted and commented nasty things to every possible platform they could find,” he said. “I received hundreds of messages saying something like: ‘Die, you dog’ [and] “If Amir doesn’t finish you, we will do that for him.’ There was one guy, probably the sickest one of the bunch, [and] he counted down the days to my death. Every day, he greeted me by texting “You got 28 days left …,” “You got 27 days left.’ There was one day when he didn’t text me, so I said to him, ‘Hey, man. Seems that you forgot I got 26 days left.’ I legit don’t care about these things.
“I was just really shocked to see the culture of Iranian fans, who apparently thought that they supported their favorite fighter in the best way possible doing things like that,” Omielanczuk added. “They only succeeded in dishonoring him. It is sad that I couldn’t defeat him. There were some controversial moments in that fight. Like in many other fights that I have had, there was just one little thing that prevented me from winning, probably the luck turned its back on me.”
Outside of training for his fights, Omielanczuk enjoys playing soccer. In fact, a group of Polish mixed martial artists formed a soccer team and defeated a group of Polish boxers, proving that “MMA is better than boxing, even in soccer.” Omielanczuk, an admitted tattoo enthusiast, also took part in a few charity soccer matches, with money raised being donated to cancer patients.
While some fans have taken to calling him “The Polish Bear,” Omielanczuk does not care for nicknames all that much.
“All I want now is to pull up spectacular fights, making more and more money,” he said. “I hope that I will be fighting for the title in my next fight. I got all it takes. It has to be said that I don’t fight to become super popular. It burdens me. I am not a movie star, not a legend, not the ‘American Ninja.’ I am just a heavyweight fighter and I want everyone to treat me as one, nothing else. I pursue [the] ACA championship only to prove to myself that I am a good MMA fighter after all.”
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